Aleg-up, Inc. is a tax exempt, non-profit, 501(c)(3) public charity, chartered on June 14, 2005 and is located at the Tennessee Technology Center at Morristown, TN.

The mission of Aleg-up is to provide business and professional life skills training to Appalachian high school students prior to graduation, thus preparing them to enter the workforce and/or higher educational institutions with realistic knowledge and the understanding of their future employers’ requirements and expectations. 

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Aleg-up, Inc. celebrates third anniversary

It has been an interesting past three years since we were chartered on June 14, 2005,” says Dick Clark Founder and Executive Director of Aleg-up, Inc.  “You never know what is around the next bend with an organization like this,” according to Clark.

Aleg-up, Inc. is a tax exempt, non profit organization with a mission to provide business and professional life skills training to Appalachian high school students prior to graduation, thus preparing them to enter the workforce and/or higher educational institutions with realistic knowledge and understanding of their future employers’ requirements and expectations.  The program focuses on young adults in high school, foster care and detention.

“There is no other organization in the United States that does what we do.  What makes us different is our curriculum is designed to help all high school students succeed no matter if they go to college or not. Beyond that, our program is dynamic in that it can change on a dime based on current business and economic conditions.

The biggest thing we notice is what schools teach compared to what business and industry need.  As an example, schools teach individual accomplishment while business and industry rely on teamwork to succeed yet no school really teaches teambuilding as a course.  Another example is that business and industry require critical thinking and problem solving from their employees to promote continuous improvement thus adding value.  These are subjects you might get in college but that does not help when only 20 percent of Tennessee’s high school graduates attend a post secondary educational institution.  We fill in the blanks,” stated Clark. 

Currently the Aleg-up LifeSkills program has 18 modules that include:

• Knowing who you are  (DiSC Personal Profile System)
• Focusing on the future and developing career objectives
• Choosing the right career
• Problem solving and critical thinking
• Learning what employers want
• Professionalism – developing a responsible attitude
• Leadership principles
• Managing interpersonal relationships
• Teambuilding
• Conflict management
• Time and stress management
• Diversity
• Ethical behavior and stewardship
• Financial management
• Communication skills- speech preparation/presentation
• Resume writing
• Interviewing skills
• Proper etiquette

In addition to the LifeSkills program Aleg-up, Inc. now offers three new programs LeaderSkills, TeamSkills and SpeechSkills.  “I wish you could visit to our web site www.alegup.org to read more about us but Mr. Dave Hite who owns TryCities Web Design and donates his talents and web services to Aleg-up, is in China right now.  For some reason his server is down.  I hope he gets back soon,” Clark said.

Unlike many non profits, Aleg-up does not have any paid employees including the Executive Director.  It is purely a voluntary program.  Thanks to the Tennessee Technology Center at Morristown, Aleg-up, Inc. has office space provided at no cost to the organization.  In return though, Aleg-up provides counseling, resume service, training programs for students and helps recruit for the school at no cost. 

“We have had some donations from the Kiwanis club and from All Saints Episcopal Church in Morristown but we try not to have our hand out too much.  We would rather earn our keep by providing training and human resource services to business and industry in the community. And we are pretty good at it,” Clark added.  “I have been an HR professional in senior management for over 30 years with tier one auto,” Clark stated.  “On top of that, I started my own training and consulting business in 1978 putting in seven day weeks between two jobs.  It was fun but extremely hard at times.  I am glad I do not do that now.  With my background along with the background of other Alep-up volunteers, we offer a wide range of professional services with all of the proceeds funding Aleg-up.  Except for having to pay for a few odds and ends, almost all of our income goes right back to the communities in which we serve.  Not too many organizations do that I bet,” says Clark.

“Over the last three years we have had our fair share of disappointments.  We are disappointed that more people don’t use us especially in that are services are free to the end user.  Maybe we should look for better ways to promote ourselves but that usually costs money.  We have met a lot of people over the last three years who have the ways and means to improve the educational systems in our part of the state and yet don’t.  Some give money to various causes but don’t do anymore than write a check.  I learned along time ago you can throw money at a problem but without the personal commitment the problem remains.  That is disappointing to us.  We visited one school system that wanted to use our free services then file for a grant stating that it was to benefit our program when in fact the money would be used to buy new uniforms for the football team.  Obviously, we did not provide our services to that school,” according to Clark.

“However, our successes far outweigh our disappointments especially when it comes to helping young adults succeed.  We have had approximately 100 students complete our 27 hour LifeSkills program and we have worked with over 500 high school and post secondary school students in seminars, lectures and low ropes programs.  Unfortunately the economy is a little sluggish right now with business and industry tightening their budgets.  But looking on the bright side since we have now completed three years, opportunities may open up for us when it comes to obtaining grant and foundation monies.  We are kind of weak when it comes to grant writing in that we have not had to do much of that type of thing in the past.  With the economy as it is, we may have to learn,” Clark continues.

But before I forget, I want to thank all of those who have supported us over the last three years including  Dr. Orville Bach who chaired the SIFE program at Walters State and got us off to a great start by allowing us to apply for and eventually winning a $5000 grant from the Marcus Foundation.  And then there is Mr. Richard Clark, CEO of the Morristown-Hamblen Healthcare System for using Aleg-up to train many of their administrative staff in interviewing techniques.  Of course I cannot forget Ms. Lynn Elkins at the Tennessee Technology Center at Morristown for providing office space for us.  Lynn always tells everyone we are not part of the Technology staff but we do live there.  Lastly I want to thank Mike Watson with the Hamblen County School System who first allowed us to work inside a school system and all of the volunteers and students who have helped us become who we are today,” Clark stated.

“We have not grown as quickly as I thought we would have but I never realized it would be so hard to give away free education,” says Clark.  “Things have changed since I was a young adult in the 1960’s and a high school teacher in the early 70’s.  I wish kids would take their future more seriously than what they do.  They need to realize from the ‘get go’ that no one owes them anything when they are on their own.  Unfortunately by the time many of them realize the fact there is no free lunch, it’s too late,” he concluded.  “But as long as there is anyone who needs our help,  we will be here.”